


Out of the Frying Pan

by caveyoja



Series: The Family You Choose [8]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 19:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17028675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caveyoja/pseuds/caveyoja
Summary: Molly finds herself in danger, and things only get worse after Eiffel finally catches up with them.





	Out of the Frying Pan

Molly had found this spot a little after they first got here. It overlooked the motel and the valley below, and was shaded for most of the day so it didn’t get too hot in the afternoon. Lace was curled up behind her, and she leaned back on her, thinking that she really should be getting back but not wanting to face everyone yet. She was even more of a freak now than she had been before – and now there was the chance that she was dying, and she could maybe even be killing her friends by just being in the same room with them.

All because of those weird fucking rocks. She sort of remembered them from when she was little – shiny and glittery, and it was like they were breathing when you poked them. She even almost remembered the explosion, but it was kind of like she had been watching it in a movie. Mami had been yelling her name, and then it was loud and bright and she was flying through the air with the glittery rocks shattering and maybe she breathed in some of the dust? She remembered they had been all over her skin, and they had been warm and tingly, but when the firemen came the rocks were gone. Had she absorbed them? Was that what made her the freak she is?

God, she wished Stacey was here right now, rattling off some weird science crap that she didn’t understand, but ending up telling her she was going to be ok. And giving her a hug. Stacey gave great hugs. Or maybe even Dale, with one of his incredibly horrible dad-jokes where both she and Gert would roll their eyes but still chuckle. It made her feel like she was six years old, but they always made her feel safe, and she needed that so much right now.

She brushed away a tear, watching the motel. She was too far away to make out anything smaller than the van, but Gert was probably worrying and watching the hills trying to pick her out. Chase was probably outside with her, worried about them both, because he was basically like her big brother. The others would be worrying too, but it wouldn’t hit them as hard as it would Gert and Chase. She was glad they had finally pulled theirs heads out of their asses and figured it out – they really did need each other.

She should go back, for Gert’s sake, because even with the meds, her being gone was probably kicking Gert’s anxiety into high gear. She just couldn’t bring herself to move. Being here, with just Lace, where no one could find her – that was safe. Going back felt like giving that up.

Lace made a low noise in her throat and pushed her head against Molly’s arm. “It’s ok, girl,” Molly said, scratching at the dinosaur’s snout. Lace sniffed at the air, and then nudged Molly again, pushing her toward the path back down. “What?” Molly felt a cooler breeze, and smelled the air herself – that smell you get when it’s about to start raining. The same smell from when Dale and Stacey had brought them out here and it had rained so hard they nearly got all their gear washed away. She felt a drop on her face, and looked up in time to see the lightning hit a tree on the other side of the valley. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath, and started down the path, walking as quickly as she could without slipping.

 

Gert stood outside, scanning through the hills that ringed the motel and wished that her eyesight was better. Molly was up there - alone and scared, and she should have stopped her from leaving. All she did was send her dinosaur after her. That might be enough to keep her safe from mountain lions, and Lace was a great emotional support animal, but it wasn’t the same kind of support you got from a sister. She pulled off her glasses and cleaned them on her shirt, hoping to be able to focus more clearly, but sighed when there wasn’t any improvement, wrapping her arms around herself and trying to keep from crying.  
She felt arms wrap around her from behind, and leaned into Chase’s hug as he kissed the top of her head. “She’ll be fine. She’s strong.”

“Mm-hm,” Gert acknowledged, not trusting herself to be able to talk without starting to cry.

Chase squeezed her and removed one arm, reaching into his pocket, and held a small box in front of her. She examined it briefly and then twisted her head, raising an eyebrow in question as she looked at him. “It’s a detector,” he explained. “It’s got settings to pick up both Molly and Lace.”

Her eyes widened as she smiled hopefully. She really did have the best boyfriend. “Will it work from here?”

He nodded, and she twisted back around in his arms so she could see as he held the box in front of her, switched it on and slowly moved the box to scan across the peaks surrounding the valley. He narrowed in on an outcrop on the south side of the valley. “Over there,” Chase confirmed.

There was a crack of thunder and they both jumped, looking toward the West. Dark clouds were rolling in, with flashes of lightning behind them. “That looks like how it started when we were camping,” Gert said nervously. “We’ve got to get her.”

Chase nodded, kissing her cheek before he sprinted back to the motel, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll get the others.”

 

She lost them that first day – they were far enough ahead of her that she took the wrong fork in the road and it was dark before she’d figured that out. It had taken her three days of backtracking – and telling her Mom that her Dad was taking her on a buying trip – but she finally caught a break. All it took was a little flirting with the greasy, pimply loser who worked at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. He told her all about the white van that had come in a couple of times for gas. His boss had called him away before she could get any more out of him, and all she got out of flirting with his boss had been a cold, suspicious stare. So, she cut her losses and headed back up the road the loser said they’d gone on.

She hadn’t noticed the storm until it was right on top of her – who knew it could rain like this in the desert? She had a mountain on one side and a ledge on the other, and since turning around when she could barely see the road in front of her was more dangerous than going forward, she put the windshield wipers on high and crawled her way up the mountain. After a few minutes the road leveled out and opened up – and that was when she saw it. A motel with a white van parked in front. 

She stopped the car and stared at it. Finding them was one thing. Helping Chase escape was something else. And, Molly, of course. She was definitely here to rescue that poor, innocent girl as well. 

She couldn’t just barge in. She had the gun, but still – there were, what, four of them? If Chase and Molly hadn’t been able to escape, then her barging in, with a gun or not, was probably a bad idea. She pulled the car off to a clearing on the side of the road and turned off the headlights. Nope – best plan was to wait until it was dark, and then try to sneak in and get to Chase – and Molly, of course – without being detected by those scumbags who had kidnapped them.

 

Anything that was dirt had turned to mud, so Molly tried to stick to the rocks, but they were pretty slippery as well, so she forced herself to take her time heading down the mountain. The lightning was getting closer, but was still far enough away that she had time to get a little further down before she needed to worry. Lace stuck right by her side – her claws were perfect for this kind of terrain, and Molly kept a hand on her to steady herself.

She paused and looked ahead on the path – or at least what she thought was the path. She was kind of turned around, and was sort of relying on Lace to keep her going in the right direction. Her clothes were soaked through, and her hair hung in soggy strands in front her her face. She paused to pull a hair tie from her pocket and pulled it back to make sure she could see, and Lace began to nervously nudge at her to keep moving. “It’s ok, girl,” she muttered, trying to reassure herself as much as Lace.

There was a crash behind her and she spun around in time to see a wall of mud and rocks heading toward her. Before she had a chance to react, Lace grabbed the back of her jacket, teeth just grazing her neck, and pulled her away to the side, clambering to the top of a large rock surrounded on all sides by the mudslide. Molly’s heart raced as she watched what had been her path now covered in a jumbled mix of mud and rocks and water. She carefully leaned over the side of the rock, looking for a way down, but all she could see was the slide. She realized how close they had been to being swept away and reached up to pat Lace’s snout, whispering “Good girl.” 

Not seeing any way off the rock at the moment, she sat down and hoped to wait out the storm without getting hit by lightning or dragged down by another slide. Her heart was still racing, but the edge from the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and she began to realize that she was cold. She shivered, and Lace curled around her protectively.

 

Karo was able to get about ten feet in the air before the winds got too strong for her and she had to land again, so they followed Chase’s tracker toward Molly and Lace on the ground. They made it a few hundred feet up a path but found themselves blocked by a mix of mud and fast-flowing water and had to make a slow climb over increasingly large boulders as they made their way up. They were at the base of a chasm when Chase lost the signal and announced, “We need to get to higher ground – the rocks are blocking the signal.

Karo grabbed a rope Alex had brought with them, the overhanging rocks blocking enough wind so that she could float to the top of the chasm and tied the rope off around a boulder that seemed to be stable. It took longer than Gert liked for them to make it to the top, and she peered around anxiously as Chase tried to lock on to Molly’s signal again. “Maybe she’s in one of the canyons and the rocks are blocking her from here?” she guessed.

Chase nodded, “Yeah – I think you’re right.” He surveyed his surroundings, his hand above his eyes to try to keep the rain out, and pointed to a ridge to their left, “I think we were headed that way.”

Gert looked around and froze in place. “Did you hear that?” The others looked at each other and shook their heads. 

“Didn’t hear...anything,” Nico muttered through chattering teeth. Karo wrapped her arms around her from behind, glowing dimly to provide her with some warmth.

Gert scanned the hills and pointed to a ridge downhill from where Chase had indicated, “They’re this way!” she said with certainty, and hurried toward the spot she’d indicated as quickly as she could without slipping. 

Chase and the others struggled to catch her and finally caught up as she stopped on the top of a ridge, calling out, “Molly!”

They faintly heard, “Gert!” in reply, and turned to where the sound had come from, seeing Molly and Lace, stranded on a boulder surrounded by fast-flowing water on all sides.

Alex got as close to the water as he could, and looked around for a rock to tie to the end of the rope. Chase and Gert met him at the water’s edge as he threw the weighted rope to Molly. He wasn’t able to get it close enough and after he’d tried three times Chase held out his hand, asking “Let me try.”

Alex nodded and handed the rope to Chase, who overshot the target, but Molly was able to grab on to the rope before the current took it away from her. “Tie it to Lace!” Gert shouted.

Molly nodded and tied the rope around Lace’s waist. She hooked her hands and knees around the rope, her eyes glowing as she mustered the last of her strength to inch down it towards the others. Alex and Chase were anchoring the rope on the other end, with Chase wrapping the rope around his waist and digging his feet in. 

Gert felt her heart racing as she watched her sister inch toward her and did her best to stop imaging the worst that could happen. It felt like it took hours, but Molly finally reached them, and Gert pulled her back from the water, enveloping her in a hug, “Are you ok?”

She felt Molly nod, “K – just cold,” she said through chattering teeth.

Gert nodded, and gave her a tight smile, “Let’s get you home, ok?”

“W’bout Lace?” Molly asked, her exhaustion catching up with her as her eyes started to close.

“Don’t worry about her,” Gert assured her, turning back toward the boulder Molly had been stranded on and whistling. Lace leaped across the water, anxiously sniffing at both Gert and Molly.

Molly chuckled sleepily, “Could have just tied myself to her.”

They started back toward the ridge with Chase following the others to make sure none of them slipped into the still rising water. Both Molly and Gert were soaked to the skin, and he knew Gert wouldn’t admit it but judging by how blue her lips were becoming she had to be just as cold as Molly. He leaned forward when he saw Molly stumble, but Gert was quick enough to grab her sister and keep her standing. Chase wondered if it would be better if he tried to carry Molly - 

The lightning hit a scraggly tree barely twenty feet upstream, not close enough to hurt any of them, but more than enough to get them all running despite the cold and the rain. He couldn’t see the route they’d taken down from the ridge, but Alex had climbed to the top of a rock and was holding out a hand for Molly. He moved forward to help Molly and then Gert up to the top. His heart started to race as he felt the rocks beneath his feet start to give way, and he jumped forward, grabbing for Alex’s hand...

 

Alex tried to force himself to stay calm. He felt like running, but going full speed back to the motel in a panic was definitely more dangerous in this mess than finding a slow, deliberate way back. The cold and rain might suck, but it was better than someone breaking a leg because they slipped. Especially without any access to a doctor. 

He just needed to be patient. They got Molly, and once Chase made it back up they could take their time finding a long, cold, slow and safe route back. He glanced back to make sure Molly was okay and saw Karolina glowing and hugging Molly to try to warm her up, with Gert hovering next to her sister protectively and Lace watching over them both. He sighed – everything was going according to plan – the latest version of the plan at least, and turned back to help Chase back up. 

There was a crashing sound from where the lightning had hit and the rocks at the base of the tree crumbled and slid downhill. The water trickled through where the rocks had been, quickly gathering force, and he knew it would be only a few seconds before they gave way. He leaned out as far as he could to grab Chase, and Chase half jumped and half tried to climb up the rock to meet him, his momentum pushing him up to where his fingers brushed against Alex’s. Alex stretched further, trying to grab for his hand, but then Chase’s foot slipped and he fell back out of reach. He saw Chase’s eyes widen in fear as the wall of water hit him full force and swept him downstream. 

Alex froze for a second in shock, coming out of it when he heard Gert behind him screaming out Chase’s name. He started to scramble downstream but was passed by Lace who raced ahead, focused on finding Chase. Alex struggled to keep up and saw Lace stop and perch on a ledge that overlooked where the channel bent and the current briefly slowed. The dinosaur focused on the water, staring intently, and then quickly jumped in, grabbing on to Chase and tossing him out of the stream before clambering back up behind him.

 

Gert reached Chase first, and knelt over him, desperately whispering, “Chase - baby – open your eyes...” She gripped his shirt, and shook him, trying to wake him, but when that didn’t work she stopped, still holding him up by his shirt, and forced herself to calm down. Chase couldn’t help himself – but she could help him. She had to help him. She had to push aside being terrified because he wasn’t moving. He needed her to take care of him. 

She let out a deep breath. OK, she knew how to do this. Dale and Stacey had drilled her on CPR and first aid and just about anything else she might need for emergencies. So, start with the evaluation.

First, check for a pulse - she wasn’t sure, but it felt like it was there. Weak, but still there. Second – was he breathing? She felt a flicker of panic when she couldn’t see his chest rise, or feel his breath when she put her hand to his face. 

So next – rescue breathing. Her hands were starting to shake, both from the cold and from fear, but she kept her focus. She straightened him out on the ground and tilted his head back. Then – deep breath, pinch his nose shut, breath into his mouth for one second, count of six, and then repeat. She vaguely noticed Alex kneeling on Chase’s other side, checking Chase’s neck for a pulse, and adjusted her position next to Chase to make room for Alex when he started doing chest compressions, because – yeah – hadn’t he been lifeguard certified in the same class that Amy took?

She tuned Alex out and just focused on breathe out, count 1, breathe in, count 6, repeating over and over again, not counting how many times she had to repeat breathing for him. Alex paused to take Chase’s pulse, and then began the compressions again. 

She wasn’t sure at first, but she thought Chase twitched when she pulled away from him for a breath, but then he gasped, tried to breath in deeply, and coughed, sputtering out water. Gert began to cry in relief, and shifted his position so she held him up and he could breathe more easily. Chase looked up at her, confused, and she tried to smile for him, “You’re ok, baby. You’re gonna be fine.”

He closed his eyes and nodded, letting his breathing slow down to a normal pace, and brought a hand up to her face, looking at her adoringly as he hoarsely whispered, “You saved me.”

“Of course I saved you,” she chuckled, “I love you.” She leaned in and kissed him, “But - you never get to scare me like that again, ok?”

Chase nodded weakly, “Yeah – that wasn’t fun.” Gert smiled tightly, almost crying with relief that he was awake, and pulled him closer.

 

By the time Nico, Karo and Molly had reached Chase, he was conscious and Gert was protectively wrapped around him. Alex was still on the ground, leaning back and letting the rain fall over his face as the adrenaline from the previous few minutes ran out. Nico walked up behind him and nudged him with her knee, “Good going, Wilder. Amy would’ve been proud.” 

Alex half smiled and raised a hand with a thumbs-up to her. He wearily tried to pull himself to his feet, taking Karo and Molly’s hands when they offered them to help him up. As he had been planning before the interruption, the next thing was to get everyone back to the motel in one piece. He paused to get a better look at his surroundings and saw a ridgeline to their left that led away from the stream and ran down close to the motel. Pretty gentle slope, and it looked like it was mostly shielded from the wind. He pointed it out to Nico, who nodded in agreement. 

Alex did a quick survey of everyone’s condition – Molly looked like she was verging on hypothermia and Chase was pretty weak, but the rest of them were ok. Cold, but ok. It might take some time to help Chase get back, but there was no reason to make Molly wait on him. He caught Nico’s eye and nodded over to Molly, “She’s freezing – can you Karo get her back to the motel? I’ll help Gert with Chase.”

Nico nodded in agreement, and he tried to take a step back toward Chase, but stumbled over his own feet. “You ok?” she asked as she reached out to grab his arm.

Alex sighed, leaning over with his hands on his knees, “Yeah – I’m good. Just cold and tired. Really looking forward to huddling around the fireplace and drinking crappy coffee, you know?”

Nico squeezed his arm, “We’ll have a fire waiting for you by the time you get those two down. You’re on your own for the coffee.”

Alex huffed out a laugh as he turned to leave and headed over to the other two. Chase was still curled up in Gert’s arms, and she looked up at Alex warily. “We should probably be getting back to the motel,” she said before he could say anything. Alex nodded, and Gert sighed, nudging Chase, “C’mon, baby, we gotta get somewhere warmer, ok?” Chase looked up at her and nodded, clumsily attempting to get to his feet, and making only half-hearted attempts at complaining when both Gert and Alex propped him up and helped him head down the ridge.

 

Chase’s teeth hadn’t started chattering badly until they got back to their room and Gert hustled him into the bathroom and started stripping off his wet clothes. He managed to chuckle as Gert wrapped a towel around his shoulders, “I...planned...our first...shower together….a little differently.”

Gert huffed out a laugh, throwing his wet clothes into a pile on the floor and checking the shower temperature before stripping off her own clothes. She took the towel from his shoulders and directed him into the shower, stepping in after him and pulling the curtain closed. Chase groaned as the water hit him and the warmth started seeping into his bones. Gert smirked as she soaped up a washcloth, “Well, lets hope I can get you to make that sound again when we have our next shower together.”

Chase smiled and leaned back into Gert as she began washing the mud from the stream off his back. He felt her hands moving further down and looked back over his shoulder, “Y’know – this shower could turn out more like I imagined.”

Gert shook her head and chuckled, “Sorry, babe. We are both too tired to finish anything we try to start right now.”

He sighed and frowned, “I’m sorry.”

Gert raised an eyebrow, confused, “For what? Being exhausted?”

Chase shook his head, not making eye contact, “For being stupid. For nearly getting myself killed.”

Gert’s eyes widened, and she nudged his shoulders so he turned toward at her, “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Chase started to shake his head, and she knew he wanted to disagree. “Chase – you got me and Molly out of there before you – it would’ve been one of us instead. You did the selfless thing, and it wasn’t your fault that you got hurt instead of one of us.”

Chase closed his eyes and bit his lip, “I should’ve been faster. I should’ve been able to get out of there.”

Gert wrapped her hands around his face and waited for him to open his eyes back up and look at her. “That’s your dad talking. Maybe we could’ve done something different, but you didn’t know that going in. None of us did. And, as much as I would love for you to be able to promise me that I’ll never have to see you get hurt again, I know you can’t.” She paused, fighting back tears as the afternoon caught up with her, “God – I wish you could, because I don’t think I could survive without you.”

Chase looked into her eyes. and his eyes started to tear up as well. He’d been in love with her for as long as he could remember, but now it was so much more. Before they ran away he’d had a picture of who she was that was half what he remembered from when they were kids and half what he saw of her in school. Now...now he knew everything about her. He knew how her eyes looked just before she was about to laugh, or before she would get angry, and when she was scared. He knew just how to massage her back when she got her period, and how to make her the tea that Stacey used to give her when she got cramps. 

And, yeah, the sex was amazing. It had been amazing that first night before he really got to know her. But now it was light years beyond that first night. His Mom had tried to talk to him about sex – because his Dad wasn’t going to – and she’d talked about the difference between being in lust and being in love. He had rolled his eyes and groaned and couldn’t get out of the conversation fast enough. But he understood what she was trying to tell him now. Lust is over in minutes, but love lasts a lifetime. At least, he hoped it did.

He wrapped his hands around Gert’s face, kissed her forehead, and then looked into her eyes, brushing her tears away. “I can promise that I’ll try not to die,” he whispered, “but you’ve gotta promise that too. Because the only way I see the future is with us together.”

Gert sniffed and nodded, wrapping her arms around him, “I like that – I want that too.”

Chase settled her head into the crook of his neck and kissed the top of her head, “So – you promise?”

Gert chuckled, “I promise – I’ll try not to die either.”

 

 

Alex stretched his legs out in front of him, pulling the blanket around him as he stared into the fire. This was good. Warm was good. Cold sucked. Cold and wet sucked even worse. And, that was about as many thoughts as he could string together at this point. Coffee might help with that – but that would mean leaving the nice warm here for the cold kitchen there….so, coffee would definitely wait. Especially since Nico had handed him a cup of cocoa with what tasted like vodka in it once he’d settled in front of the fire after he’d showered and put on dry clothes.

Wait – where had the vodka come from? He thought Chase had polished off all the alcohol back in the days when he and Gert were alternately pining for and sniping at each other. As opposed to whatever they were doing right now. And he really didn’t want the details of their relationship now. 

But – apparently he had not wiped out their alcohol. Apparently Nico had a stash of at least vodka somewhere. So….file that away just in case. File it away with all the other random crap he had stored away in his head.

Fuck, he was tired. They all were. Molly was passed out on the couch behind him and Nico and Karo were curled up together on the love seat on the other side of the fire. Gert and Chase were huddled together, their backs against Lace, who was curled up like a cat by the fire. Like a big hairless, fangy, terrifying cat. What was it they called those hairless cats? Sphynx? 

He really should be sleeping right now, because his brain seemed to be turning off bit by bit. But actually putting down the cocoa and crawling onto a couch seemed like way too much effort. So, maybe he could just fall asleep right here? But – he really should put down the cocoa cup at least. He glanced over at the side table, figured he could just reach it, and stretched his arm out. He missed the table by two inches and the mug fell to the floor. 

Fortunately, it was empty and the mug didn’t break. So – fuck it. Picking that up could wait until morning.

He pulled the blanket around himself and leaned over into a stack of pillows Molly had cleared off the couch before she’d claimed it. As he closed his eyes, he almost thought he saw someone in the lobby. 

That had to be the vodka. Because who the fuck other than them would be all the way out here?

 

Eiffel had hidden herself in the motel in a closet off of the lobby while they were gone and watched them as they returned in two groups. The first was that blond slut and the Asian goth chick whose sister died – they were half carrying Molly, who looked like she was barely alive. The second group was that black computer geek kid and the fat SJW that Chase was playing – and they had Chase, who didn’t look any better than Molly.

Obviously, they must have tried escaping and been recaptured. She had hoped she wouldn’t need the gun, but if they could do that to Chase and Molly, then they must be tougher than they looked.

She waited until well after they’d stopped talking and crept out to the back of the room where she found them all sleeping by the fire. Molly was stretched out on the couch, with the black kid on the floor in front of her. He must be guarding her. 

The blond and the asian girl were….curled up together on a loveseat. Wow. Didn’t take her long to move on from the Lacrosse team.

And Chase had the fat SJW latched on to him. She edged forward...maybe she could help him get away while the girl was sleeping? They had their backs against some kind of weird sofa and she tried to edge around it…

The sofa twitched.

She froze in place and looked at it more closely. What in the name of god was that thing? Some kind of huge creepy hairless mountain lion or something? 

She backed away. That had to be it – that had to be how they were keeping Chase and Molly with them. It must have tracked them down and dragged them back. That meant she’d have to wait a little longer – at least until she could get Molly and Chase into her car and they could try to outrun that thing.

 

Alex woke up when Molly tripped over him as she got off the couch. To be fair, there wasn’t any reason for her to think that he was there. But still...ow. 

He sat up, pulled the blanket closer around him and blearily glanced around the room. The fire had gone out – which explained why it was cold – but the sun was up, so it would probably get warmer soon. Karolina was awake and moving around – and it looked like she’d made oatmeal for all of them. She was actually one of the more aggressively morning people he’d ever met. It almost made him feel sorry for Nico. Except he really didn’t. Nico deserved to love someone who loved her for herself, not because she was a reflection of her sister. So, yeah, as Molly would say, he “shipped” Nico and Karolina.

He pushed himself up onto the couch and nodded his thanks to Karolina when she handed him a bowl. He looked into the bowl. Oatmeal. Again. Not that Karo didn’t make a killer oatmeal...but he was going to need coffee before he could face another day of vegan oatmeal. He pulled the blanket tightly around himself and stumbled toward the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee maker.

 

Eiffel peered through the pantry door. The blond slut had been in before, cooking something, and left with a tray full of bowls. Eiffel had been trying to plan out her next move since the blond had left a few minutes before. Maybe if she could get Chase or Molly’s attention, she could get one of them to the car – if she got one of them back, then she could get the police out here. They’d be able to find them if they had a starting point, right?

The door suddenly opened, and she pulled further back into the pantry. It was the computer geek, wrapped up in a blanket with his decidedly unstylish messy hair looking even more messy than usual. She watched as he stumbled over to the coffee maker and re-adjusted the blanket to free one arm so he could reach up to open a cabinet.

“Hey, Wilder!” Eiffel’s eyes widened as she realized that was Chase’s voice. The geek – Wilder, she guessed – mumbled something in response, which Chase must have heard, because he continued, “Can you make the coffee less toxic today?”

She watched as Wilder closed his eyes and shook his head, shouting back, “Fuck you, Stein! You wouldn’t know good coffee if it bit you in the ass!”

“That’s Gert’s job!” Eiffel’s eyes widened. Was that Molly? She looked over at Wilder and saw him shaking his head, laughing, and thought she heard a conversation back in the lobby. 

She pulled the gun out of her pocket and double checked that the safety was on. She had thought that all she needed to do was to get their attention and they’d jump at the chance to go with her. But it was worse than she thought. Chase and Molly were joking with them, and that meant they were buying in to whatever delusion the kidnappers had been feeding them. What was that – Stockholm syndrome? Like in Beauty and the Beast?

OK. Whatever. She could handle this. If they were buying into this, then she could use a hostage to get them to come with her for their own good. She quietly let out a breath, eased open the pantry door and stepped out, pointing the gun at Wilder. He was staring intently at the coffee maker and didn’t notice her. She didn’t want to alert the others and waited for him to notice her, but his eyes never wavered from the coffee machine. She tapped her foot and waved the gun to catch his attention.

He looked over to her, did a double take, and she gave him a second to register what he was seeing. When he opened his mouth to say something, she put a finger over her lips to tell him to be quiet. He nodded to indicate that he understood, but looked at her in confusion. 

Eiffel smiled. So far so good. He wasn’t even putting up a fight. She nodded back toward the lobby and whispered, “Call Molly – tell her to come here.”

He looked at her blankly, and whispered back, “Why?”

“What?”

“Why would I call her to come in here?”

“Because someone is pointing a gun at you and telling you to?”

He raised an eyebrow, “You want me to tell her that?”

Eiffel rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Is there any conceivable reason why you would want her to come in here?” She raised the gun higher and made sure he saw her thumb ready to take off the safety.

 

Alex stared at the disheveled, possibly mentally ill, woman standing in front of him. More specifically, he stared at the gun she was pointing and at the thumb that was conspicuously close to taking it off of safety. Why the fuck did she want him to call Molly? And, more importantly, how did he stop her from shooting him when he didn’t call Molly? Because he kind of figured that if this woman wanted to see Molly, then the best move was to keep Molly as far away from her as possible.

Contingency plans, he thought, hitting on it a moment later than he should due to some combination of fear and caffeine deprivation. He’d drilled them on it, and please god let them be awake enough to remember the code word for “the police have me”. Because, ok, not the police, but that was as close as his contingency plans came to a situation like this. He locked eyes with the woman, hoping that might make her pause before shooting him, and called out, “Hey! Molls! What did you do with the leftover pizza?”

 

Molly started off for the kitchen to ask Alex what the hell he was talking about when Gert grabbed her arm and shook her head, putting a hand over her mouth to keep her from talking. Molly shook her head, not understanding until Chase mouthed the word “pizza” and it all snapped into place. Gert called out, “Sorry, Alex – I gave that to Lace!” to buy them some time.

Nico motioned for them to huddle together so they could talk quietly. “Who has the van keys?” Gert fished them out of her pocket and handed them over. “Molly – get the van started – as soon as we get Alex, we’re out of here.” Molly was about to protest, but Nico cut her off, “I know you can fight, but we need a reserve if we fuck this up.” Molly frowned, but nodded in agreement.

Nico nodded back and continued, “Karo – go to the kitchen back door, and light the room up – bright enough to blind whoever it is who has Alex. Shout to us when they’re down and we’ll get Alex out of there. We all meet up back at the van. If someone doesn’t make it, we come back for them.” Nico looked at each of them, waiting for them to nod in agreement. Chase and Gert looked at each other, and then turned back to Nico, both nodding at her.

 

Alex couldn’t help but notice that the woman looked displeased. Or that her thumb had nudged closer to the safety. While that concerned him, he was more worried that the others would try to do something idiotically heroic like try to rescue him when his very explicitly spelled out contingency plans said that they should run away now and rescue later.

The woman glared at him, “Think of something else!”

Alex shrugged, “Kinda hard to think when there’s a crazy woman pointing a gun at me.”

The woman blinked at him, surprised. “I am NOT crazy. You’re kidnappers! And you murdered that girl! I’m here to save Molly and Chase!”

 _Molly and Chase_ , Alex thought. The news reports said Molly was kidnapped, but never said anything about Chase being a victim. So – either she somehow knew them, or she was some kind of stalker who had fixated on Stein. Either way, she was still dangerous and still had a gun pointed at him.

So – what were his odds? As long as she didn’t hit something vital with the first shot or two he should be able to get the gun away from her before she was able to hurt him too badly. She had dropped her guard when he pushed back before, so maybe that was the way to go now. “Look, whoever you are -”

“Whoever I am?” she looked at him in disbelief. “I’m Eiffel! I’m the captain of the dance team! I dated Chase!”

Alex blinked at her, “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“We go to the same school!” she shouted.

“It’s a big school. I really don’t think you’re in any of my classes.”

She glared at him, “We’re in the same Economics class and have been in the same French class for two years.”

Alex examined her more closely, but then shook his head, “Sorry - don’t remember you.”

“Don’t remember me? EVERYONE knows me.”

“Well, obviously not everyone.”

She rolled her eyes, “Right – like you’re anyone.”

Suddenly it clicked, and Alex pointed at her, “Wait! I do remember you! You’re the hateful bitch!”

Eiffel’s mouth dropped open, and she sputtered, “I am NOT! I -”

“Lightshow!” 

Alex heard Karolina shout and saw Eiffel turn toward the back door as he moved an arm up to shade his eyes. He could see the light, even with his eyes shaded, and when the brightness had died down, the room started to slowly come back into focus. It was still blurry, but he could see that Eiffel still had the gun, and was pointing it blindly around the room.

He and Karolina both lunged for the gun. He heard the door from the lobby open and knew the others were there, but the only one he could pinpoint was Lace, whose claws scratched against the tile and who growled softly as she moved. Eiffel honed in on the sound as well, and swung the gun toward the dinosaur.

It all seemed to be in slow motion after that. Both Gert and Chase were grabbing for the gun as well, with Gert trying to shield Lace and Chase trying to shield Gert, and somehow in the middle of it all the gun went off, with the sound echoing through the room. 

Eiffel dropped the gun as soon as it went off, and brought her hands up to cover her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Alex grabbed the gun, flicking the safety back on, and scanned the room as best he could with his still limited vision. 

He heard Nico shout, “No!”, and followed her as she ran toward Lace. Lace was still growling softly, hovering protectively over both Chase and Gert, who were tangled together on the floor, a puddle of blood pooling beneath them.


End file.
